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By Bret Schulte
Corporations,
Edge spark
deep hatred
A long time ago I decided there
is nothing wrong with the emotion
of hate. Hate can be a beautifully
constructive phenomenon. Hate is
among the most passionate of mo
tivators, the others of course being
love and Winona Ryder movies. So
it is hate which drives me to write
this column about the air-borne
plague that has descended on the
metro Omaha and Lincoln area —
101.9-FM, The Edge.
I hate The Edge for more rea
sons than they have songs on their
rotation. I hate the fact that they still,
after all the hype, insist on purport
ing themselves as “alternative.” The
only thing that would qualify as al
ternative anymore is what is now
billed as “mainstream” (and, I
guess, polka ballads).
Maybe it’s just me, but I always
thought that selling a quadri-zillion
CDs meant that a majority of music
listeners possess the disc, and it is
therefore no longer an alternative to
a mainstream sound.
The only .explanation for this
heresy is corporate money. Have
you ever seen the bumper sticker
“Corporate rock sucks?” Such hon
est profundities are rarely uttered.
Corporations are the reason why
The Edge flourishes. The Edge is a
format stations subscribe to, much
like the franchise of a restaurant.
It is this corporate abuse of im
age that taints and destroys the
movement and message of rock. It
is this corporate abuse that led Kurt
Cobain to place a shotgun in his
mouth and pull the trigger. And it is
this gross abuse of corporate hege
mony that empowers The Edge to
falsify the image of rock and turn it
against itself, supporting a few
monolithic corporate bands over the
masses of poorer, independent
groups.
It was over the summer that my
hatred of The Edge focused like a
laser beam. I set my alarm clock on
101.9 in the mornings because only
the overwhelming ignorance of the
morning djs accompanied with the
miserable music could rouse me
from my peaceful, angelic slumber.
One day, as I was struggling to
pull my head from the 5 a.m. pil
low vacuum, the happily chattering
Edge D Js were discussing corporate
rock. 1 instantly perked up.
Ernie Mills and Nikki Boulay
were replying to a letter written by
a listener annoyed with the talking
during songs. The writer of the let
ter thought it was in poor taste to
use the song for the personal ben
efit of the station.
Well, the two DJs were quite
outraged. Mills sharply replied that
many musicians write the long gui
tar intros for the stations. And in this
way, the DJs could promote the
song and the station.
I got dressed very angrily. And
drove to work very angrily And 1
acted angrily for the rest of the
morning. The absolute gall and
blindness of this poor, brainwashed
product of corporate America sad
dened and—you guessed it—an
geredme._ -
Please see EDGE on 10
Welcome to The Inside
Omahan makes living off\bn Halen magazine
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
Jeff Hausman has the job of his
dreams.
He gets to hang out on the beach in
Mexico, party with rock stars, work out
of his apartment and get paid for it.
So how did this 27-year-old Omaha
native get hooked up with the high life?
He started The Inside, the world’s
largest unofficial Van Halen fan maga
zine. The Inside is run out of
Hausman’s West Omaha apartment.
Hausman fills orders and does most
of the writing few The Inside, as well
as deciding what gets published and
where it’s placed on the pages.
But the actual printing of the maga
zine is a continental affair— He’s got
sewneone in Canada working on the
actual layout, it’s printed in Toronto
and mailed out of Detroit. He’s got
editews living in New York, Chicago
anrl Rnstnn anrl thp wph si tp is rlnnp
by a fan in California.
Hausman came up with the idea for
The Inside while studying architecture
at the University of Nebraska at
Omaha. He thought he wasn’t getting
much out of college, so he decided to
quit school and do what he wanted to
with his life.
“I looked at the adults I knew and
no One was excited about their jobs,”
he said. “I talked to my parents and said
I want to have fun...I wanted to party,
go to the beach and listen to Van Halen.
“They said, ‘You can’t make a liv
ing out of that,’ and I said ‘Watch me.’”
That was three years ago. Since
then, The Inside has grown to more
than 5,000 subscribers worldwide. The
magazine is designed to attract adult
readers, and contains information not
likely to be found elsewhere.
“It’s pretty much exclusive infor
mation,” he said. “Most of the fans are
in their 20s and 30s, and already know
everything about the band, so it has to
be big for them to subscribe.”
Sane of that “big” information in
cludes exclusive interviews with the
band. Hausman recently scored an in
terview with Eddie Van Halen and
Gary Cherone, the new frontman for
Van Halen. Cherone was the former
lead singer for Extreme, and had the
lead role last year in the Broadway
musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
“I’m so excited,” Hausman said.
“No one else has interviewed this guy
yet. I’ll be the first.”
Van Halen’s singer of more than a
decade, Sammy Hagar, was released
from the band in June. It was rumored
that they had hired David Lee Roth,
the band’s original lead singer, back.
It was announced last week that
Cherone would replace them both.
Hausman, as big of a fan as he is,
was ecstatic about the change.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said.
“They got rid of Sammy (Hagar) be
cause his heart wasn’t there anymore.
David Lee Roth just can’t sing — it
took him forever to do the two songs
on the new album.”
The new Van Halen album, titled
“The Best of Van Halen: Volume I,” is
scheduled for release Oct. 22.
Hausman said he had heard — al
though he doesn t know tor sure—that
he and The Inside are personally
thanked in the liner notes for their con
tinued support.
The Inside isn’t just a fan magazine
— it’s also a Van Halen merchandise
outlet. Hausman’s three-bedroom
apartment is literally overflowing with
the 170 items he has for sale. He’s got
everything from books and stand-ups
of Eddie Van Halen to toy tour-trucks
and comic books.
“When I started this I had no con
nections to anything in the music busi
ness,” he said. “Now I’m so into the
Van Halen camp. I'm the PR guy with
out being hired.”
In fact, Hausman is into Van Halen
public relations so much, he’s got Gui
tar and Guitar World magazines call
ing him for VH updates.
The band members are loyal read
ers of the magazine, he said, and learn
about what fans are thinking.
' Ann Stack/DN
JEFF BAUSMAN sits at the editor’s desk at “The Inside,” the Van
Halen fanzine Hausman. publishes from his home in Omaha.
“It (The Inside) acts as a link be
tween them (Van Halen) and the fans,”
Hausman said.
The web site address for The In
side is: www:http://
www.vhinside.com/vhinside/ and e
mail address is
INSIDE@SONIC.NET. The Inside’s
phone number is (402) 496-7710. Sub
scriptions are $20 a year and include
four issues.
So what happens if Van Halen
breaks up? Hausman isn’t too worried
about that — he compared their fol
lowing to that of the Grateful Dead’s.
He sees a long future with Van Halen
and The Inside.
“I want to do this few the next 10
years,” he said. “This is the most ulti
mate job in the wewlei.”
New dance craze could be next Macarena
The tongoneo uses
Tup-swaying and pelvic
thrusts that make
Elvis look stiff/
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A
sexy sway of the hips. A few pelvic
thrusts. Some simple arm movements.
A catchy Latin rhythm. Put it all to
gether and it’s likely the next step in
the Latin line dance craze.
_ First came the Macarena, which
shook baseball stadiums and political
arenas alike and sits atop the Top 40
charts.
But move over Macarena, here
cranes the tongoneo.
Exposed navels, tightfitting halter
tops and skimpy miniskirts dominated
the dress as contestants at a recent
tongoneo contest on Miami Beach
strutted for television cameras.
In Spanish, a tongoneo is a seduc
tive hip movement. As a new song and
dance, will it follow the Macarena to
the top of the charts?
“It’s way better than the Macarena
and you can incorporate what you want
to incorporate,” said Catalina Montes,
a finalist in the nationwide tongoneo
contest that concluded in September on
Miami Beach. “And it keeps you in
shape.”
She learned the dance a few months
ago, just after the song was released.
She heard it on a college radio station
and loved it.
“Everybody is really getting into it
now,” she said. “The beat is enough.
You hear it and you have to move.”
The Macarena took years to catch
on. It’s a collection of simple arm
movements followed by a jump and
half-turn. The tongoneo is less robotic
and slightly more complicated. It com
bines a series of turns, quick steps, hip
swaying and pelvic thrusts that make
Elvis lode stiff.
“Everything has its time,” said
Raul, a member of the group Mestizzo
that sings the song and came up with
the provocative dance. “This might not
be the next Macarena, but it’s the next
step.”
From Montgomery, Ala. to Chicago
to New York, the Latin line dance craze
has exploded.
Yankee Stadium currently claims
the record for the most people doing
the Macarena at a sports event. More
than 50,000 did it in New York to break
the record of more than 37,000 held
by the Seattle Mariners.
In Chicago, the Democrats did the
Macarena every night at their conven
tion. But the tongoneo was there too.
Matt Haney/DN
Hispanic delegates did it at one recep
tion.
The tongoneo has already hit gold
in Mexico and the United States, ac
cording to the group’s manager. But the
bigger hopes are for a successful cross
over into the English-language market.
It’s getting a big-bucks marketing
boost from record label Polygram
Latino and Miller Brewing Co., which
sponsored the dance competition and
tour.
“I see it getting quite a bit of play,”
said Miami radio personality Lazaro
“DJ Laz” Mendez. “It’s definitely a
crossover record, once they get a feel
for it.”
Bob Behar, president of Hero Pro
ductions, which operates Latin music
video cable channel H-TV, said the
song has “been getting good response
and a lot of requests.”
“It’s taking over,” he said.
“Macarena opened the door.”